


The Future

by spnsmile



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Castiel Makes a Deal with The Shadow (Supernatural), Castiel and Dean Winchester are Saps, Castiel is Loved (Supernatural), Castiel/Dean Winchester One Shot, Coda, Comfort/Angst, Dean Winchester Actually Deals With Feelings, Dean Winchester Needs Castiel, Dean Winchester Needs a Hug, Dean Winchester Needs to Use Actual Words, Drabble, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Heavy Angst, Hope, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Men Crying, Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Plans For The Future, Romantic Fluff, Season/Series 15, Sunsets, Talking, The Empty (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24372862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spnsmile/pseuds/spnsmile
Summary: A coda written for #SPNStayAtHome challenge!Monday prompt: HopeWhen push comes to shove, Castiel reveals his secret deal. Dean copes but Castiel knows better. There's always hope.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 14
Kudos: 97





	The Future

**Author's Note:**

> Double kill with a commissioned art from @gabester-sketch  
> because I want Cas and Dean sitting on that impala too! my heart~
> 
> beta'd by Kelly Dean! Thank you @Crawling-crawly!

[ ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spnsmile/blog/gabester-sketch)

_His secret is revealed._

Not about his love for humanity, there is no keeping something achingly evident and indisputable from the start. Of how all his actions have spoken louder than words for one _man_.

_He is in love._

No, the secret is the deal with the Empty. Keeping it has been taxing, revealing it is equally gut-wrenching but it had to be done. After finally finding themselves steps away from the end game, Castiel knows they cannot afford any glitch in the plan when faced against primordial beings, so he is left with no choice, he tells them.

But the last thing Castiel expected from the Winchesters is _absolute silence._ When he expected rage, he was given _calm_. When he feared a lash out, he was treated with regard. When he dreaded another fallout, there was just _nothing_.

No rising voices, no threat. Just Sam inquiring with his knee-jerk-reaction of concern and agitation to act on the solution. But Sam is more or less the same.

It’s Dean.

Castiel expects his outburst with apprehension, but apart from the initial glare, Dean doesn’t exhibit any violent reaction. He doesn’t rebuke or accuse him. He doesn’t _tell Cas he’s stupid._

Dean just nods, broad shoulders steady, arms crossed about him, perfectly in control, accepting everything. The man whose emotions are always raw and unbidden now stands with his head impressively composed…. _nothing._

Dean is statue-still. Castiel gapes at his charge with slight disappointment. _Did he even care?_

“Dean.”

Green cool eyes meet his. “Yeah?”

Castiel stares at the blank expression. He wants to know if Dean is angry, he can’t tell this mood. This is a new level of terrible. It’s turning all his buttons on, making him itch with concern. It’s not about Dean’s calmness.

It’s about Dean not feeling anything. Castiel is certain an unsympathetic Dean is no better than an angry one. Sam calls his brother and Castiel is left with a strong urgency to speak, to explain himself even when there was no warrant for it.

“Dean, I—"

Dean zeroes in on him again with levelled eyes. But it’s the determined stare there that has Castiel flinching.

“It’s fine, you were doing what you thought you had to do…like everyone else… taking one for the team.”

Even Sam regards his brother in surprise.

“I think we need to know more about the Empty…” Sam says when silence is palpable. “What it wants since it’s working with Billie…”

And just like that, the guilty secret was out, nothing to forgive and things get settled and discussed in all technicalities until a _plan A_ and _plan B_ emerged out of four heads after a brainstorm—then a plan C including monitoring Castiel’s happiness which here has Sam pointedly looking at his brother who only made a face.

So, when they’ve pitched in ideas and keep things in perspective, the meeting is adjourned, Dean retreats in the four corners of his room followed by a whip of the trench coat in his wake, no one calls them back.

He can’t… he can’t stand Dean ignoring him again for weeks…. Was it why Sam was looking at Dean? Because he thinks Dean will do it deliberately so Castiel doesn’t have an excuse—

No, that’s just cruel.

Castiel knocks on his door.

“Dean?”

He enters Dean’s room before the man can change his mind. He finds Dean sitting on his bed, his back leaning on the headboard with a laptop on his lap. There’s always something soft and vulnerable about being inside this room. Castiel never noticed that during his heavenly duties. Didn’t realize how he’d forced himself into the privacy of Dean’s life – so he doesn’t blame the man for always jumping whenever he appears near the bed. It’s something private. But it’s a pattern now, a very comfortable pattern.

“Dean?” it’s tentative, soft.

“Yeah?” Dean lifts his eyes, expression unreadable. “What?”

Castiel pulls himself inside the room with arms flailing on his sides. Dean’s calm demeanour is unnerving. Facing demons, even Lucifer was never so complicated.

There’s a beat of silence and then—

“ _It was plundered by pirates,_ ” Cas says abruptly.

Pin drop silence.

They stare at each other. Castiel blinks several times faster.

“The Occultum…” he explains, heart hammering, “before it was housed in the ancient temple, it was brought there from Scandinavia by a group of Vikings… pirates who plundered monasteries one after another…”

His green eyes are suffocating. Castiel eyes the floor.

“It was also… dug up by tomb raiders.” He murmurs.

Dean studies him for a moment with seconds slicing the tension. Castiel flounders, having Dean’s full attention. Just when he thought he’d punch the wall to release all the tension, Dean breaks into a small smile.

It’s one of his easy-going ones, the one reserved for Castiel. He’s never seen Dean give it to anyone save the angel and Castiel always melts to it. It’s Dean’s special smile.

“You gonna tell me there are space pirates next?” he jests.

Castiel’s smile falters.

“Dean, I’m sorry.”

Dean’s tip of tongue licks the lower side of his lips in contemplation which, in all manners, is distracting. There comes a heavy sigh.

“Cas, I’m not really angry, _angry_.”

“But it’s not okay?” Castiel holds Dean’s eyes in his.

“No, it’s not.” Dean’s face is solemn. “Were you ever planning to tell me…? Or were you waiting for a sudden moment-kill? Gonna go _Jaws_ on us at the last second?”

Castiel shakes his head. “Sharks are always the victim, Dean.”

There is Dean’s easy make-face Castiel secretly adores. One thing he is sure of now, Dean has no popping vein at the side of his head. Dean is handling it better than he imagined and the angel couldn’t be thankful enough.

He sighs again and sits at the edge of the bed. “If you’re going surfing, you should never wear any jewelry that can easily mark you as shark prey.”

“Thanks, Chuckles. If you ever imagine me going beach boys, I know we’re both in the same dream.”

Castiel thought of it and it made him chuckle. He sees Dean smile back. Sitting on Dean’s bed is a comfort Castiel is fortunate to have – he finds Dean’s room to be his sanctuary, and right now, after the stressing hour of revealing his deal, the last room he expected to be sitting in is Dean’s.

Yet they are here and he is glad it is allowed.

“I… I wasn’t thinking of being happy any time soon, Dean… so I did not see any necessity of telling you and Sam.” Castiel starts again, soft and sincere. “I just… I just didn’t want to add to your problems…”

“But Cas, you’re family… and family is trouble.” Dean counters, “And your apology is not because you did it… but because you _didn’t tell_ us, right?”

Castiel hung his head.

“Yes.”

Dean nods quietly and there’s still something soft about his expression. Castiel can’t help staring.

“I’m not angry, really. So stop looking like I’m gonna chop your head off. We’re done fighting, never gonna do that again. It’s sickening.”

“Agree…”

“And no more secrets, understand?” it’s a demand Castiel is only happy to comply with.

“Okay… so um… we’re never fighting again? Ever?” Castiel must be smiling so bright because the next thing, Dean leans toward him warily with one finger up. The same way when he furtively told the angel to _never change._ Such irony.

“What?” Castiel asks.

“Cas, you ever thought about being so happy you literally die?”

“No. I doubt I am near any happiness streak until we are really at the finish line.”

Dean shakes his head. “Don’t be so sure. You feel happy now, got nothing to hide from us anymore, but that’s the first seal to your happiness, … so hold your horses. Try not to be so glad…”

Castiel’s expression closes when he understands. The grim tone of Dean’s voice sends him back down from the tiny cloud slowly ascending him up to his happy place.

Dean scratches his head, hands falling on his lap.

“Shit, should’ve stayed angry with you.”

“No.” Castiel snaps.

Dean is right. It’s what he’s been trying to figure out for weeks now. He and Dean are okay, Jack’s soul is back… little by little things are falling in their right places and if they defeat Chuck…

Castiel heaves a sigh.

“It’s good. We’re gonna think of something. We always do.” Dean turns back to his laptop and that’s it. No big words, no bicker, nothing. Castiel shifts from one leg to the other, disbelieving that he was dismissed so easily. So maybe he wants to talk about it more than he thought Dean would. He stares fixedly at Dean.

Dean blinks up at him. Castiel stays rooted on the spot.

“Well, wanna drink?”

Castiel smiles. “Of course, Dean.”

So when five minutes later, they find themselves in the privacy of the library with the same peaceful mood and whiskeys in their hands, Castiel can’t help pouring his thoughts as Dean is the only one he is comfortable enough to share them with. He can hear Sam back in his room, Jack is busy in the Dean Cave watching a good dose of commercials and Dean is here with him, raising and clinking glasses like everything is right in the world.

It’s almost perfect.

“To the future,” Dean says, their glasses clinking. When Dean notices the angel’s odd expression, he pulls lips from his glasses and throws a confused, “What?”

“I haven’t been forthcoming with you about the future I saw…when I was with Kelly and with Jack…I saw paradise.”

“Yeah, you were a very bad shark acting so fishy.”

Castiel doesn’t understand and he let it show.

“Dean, I… I did that because in that future, you were there, Dean… in that future, I saw you and me… watching that sunset… not the ending of that… We were happy. We were in my kind of paradise… and I want it, Dean… for you… Jack and Sam… and myself.”

And in his mind he saw the setting sun, it's heaven kissing the earth where the giant orb dyes both sky and the sea in a splash of golden rays stretching in the horizon far and wide, intensifying as red hues blended with pink, bright streaks blanketing the thin rolling clouds. The last battle of radiance from the sinking orb of light reflects its fury as it sets the ocean in a sea of fire and everything else is covered behind its red glow, casting shadows over the lands.

It's beautiful. But his eyes are on Dean.

_It’s perfect._

“You saw a sunset with us together?” Dean’s cheeks twitch to a smile.

“Yes.” Castiel stares. Dean’s soul is more brilliant in its glow. He can see many sunrises and sunsets, but it will always be special if it’s with Dean. Except for Dean, ironically is shaking his head.

“Maybe we should tie a bell on your neck, ring it whenever you’re so happy. Then I’ll annoy you so bad you’d—"

“Why?”

“Cas, you look…. _happy.”_

“Because I’m with you.” he narrows his eyes at the hunter. The panic in Dean’s eyes gets Castiel setting his glass down. “Don’t, Dean…” he knows exactly what just crossed Dean’s mind.

“Aren’t you afraid…of this Empty thing?”

Castiel blinks several times and is glad Dean wasn’t looking his way. He is thankful for the colored sky keeping their attention. If he looked at Dean now and Dean gave him the same empty expression, Castiel thinks he might be the one who’s not going to be calm after all.

“Believe it or not, I’ve made my peace...” he wasn’t planning on getting defeated. He lets Dean see that behind his eyes.

“So what do we take from this life, Cas? Once it’s ended? We have a job… we get the job done and…then what? I mean you’re an angel, will you tell me?”

“A celestial beings’ view of ‘existence’ is a little simpler than what you think.”

“So, it’s easy for you not to be afraid of the end of the line, huh?”

“I don’t fear death.” Castiel says truthfully, “But... I do fear one thing. That’s not finding you again.”

Castiel stares at Dean – deep, and beyond the green hues, he sees the real Dean Winchester full uncertainties, but fighting alongside it is the desire to overcome, to win. Just like the sunset fighting for its last brilliant light before darkness completely takes over. 

“Sunsets...” Dean muses, closing his eyes.

“It’s beautiful.” Castiel stares at Dean.

They both stay silent for a while.

"Sunsets are not endings," Dean begins, "Sunset means... saving lives, Cas... every time the sun sinks down that horizon and night falls... we get to our feet to get the job done... that's... sunset is saving lives."

Castiel thinks it's more than beautiful now.

“You know what I won’t regret?”

Castiel listens to the music of Dean’s heart.

“I won’t regret every single time I saved my brother… saved the world and all those people… I saved you, if I did—”

“Of course, you did, Dean.”

Dean gives him a funny look, disbelieving. Castiel stares him hard in the eyes, the one he knows Dean can never look away from and no choice but to believe.

"You…” the words weigh heavily, “you always forgave me. Every time I return after I mess everything up, you always get me… That’s you saving me.”

“S’all I can give.”

“It is not a small feat. You gave me hope, Dean.”

Dean’s eyes are two orbs glinting with fire.

“If there’s anyone here popular for throwing hope around, it’s not me, Cas… not me…”

Castiel gapes at the clamor of emotions as Dean’s eyes fill. It takes all his will power not to stand from his chair and hold Dean. Dean won’t want that… Dean will hide again.

Dean swallows the lump in his throat. He laughs hoarsely.

“But, honestly, I knew there was a catch, man…” he shakes his head quietly, “when you returned from that place, I knew some kind of a deal, some kind of other shoe drops will be coming… that’s why I’d been worried since…” he turns full green eyes to Castiel, “I was watching you very closely if something changed… if you were like when Naomi was controlling you and I… I didn’t wanna take a chance so I stuck with you… and you, the idiot, kept pushing me away.”

Castiel nods, bowing his head.

He remembers clearly. Dean was always behind him. Dean’s eyes followed him, even in the Bunker. Dean is always there, watching over him. It’s a moment of clarity.

Castiel’s eyes sting and he reaches for Dean.

“It’s alright, Dean… you didn’t…”

Dean is unappeasable now that his raw emotion has been triggered like a dam with cracks on the wall breaking out, threatening to overflow.

“So this Entity? If I face him now, I’m gonna thank him for giving you back to me… I’ll forgive Jack with anything, for giving you back to me… I’ll…”

“I’m sorry.” Castiel drapes his arm around Dean’s head and whispers soft apologies. Dean’s voice shook.

“You know how close I was to kill Jack?”

“Dean…” Castiel breaks too. It’s still fresh in his memory how Dean’s voice crashed in his ear in Purgatory. Of how Dean broke apart while distance away from him and how he broke apart too because he wasn’t with Dean.

This is the same Dean, but Castiel can hold him now so he did.

“It just made me think that if I had pulled that trigger… I would change… that if I’d pulled that trigger, if I’d killed Jack in front of you, I’d become a monster. I would’ve changed in your eyes… I would’ve wasted your sacrifice and I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

Dean’s eyes glisten and Castiel drowns in the amount of pain and regret, so that he’s reaching for Dean’s cheeks, cups his face in his hands. He knows Dean needs to let it out, his anger. He is still overwhelmed by Dean Winchester years later.

“We’re fine… we’re gonna be fine…” he repeats wanting to believe it, desperately clinging to it because there’s a reason to believe they will be. It’s Dean.

It seems like a long while before they’re both comfortably seated with each other, this time with Castiel’s chair beside Dean. There was no reason to keep the table between.

When Dean finally pulls back, hiding his face away, Castiel tells him it’s okay. Dean brightness again. Rubbing his nose and sniffing in embarrassment, he says-

“Let’s go for a ride.”

He watches Dean fish for his impala keys.

“Where are we going?”

“Where else? You said the place is in a… a landscape? Vista? Overlooking the sea? What’s that some kind of photoshoot location? What magazines have you been reading?” he checks his watch, “Yeah, I think we can find it…, it’s only 3 pm… we can catch it.”

“Catch what?”

Dean blinks like it’s the angel who’s not paying attention. 

“The future you saw. _Our future.”_

Castiel blanks.

_Our future._

“Cas, hey!” Dean claps his hands on Castiel’s face. Dean was already standing before him with a frown. The angel shakes himself out of his own little dreams, dreams Dean built from words full of hope.

Now he can’t erase it in his mind. Dean surveys him with another solemn look of concern like Castiel is doing everything wrong.

“Cas… are you always…Here’s the thing. If you really don’t wanna get taken by the Entity then think of this…”

Castiel waits as Dean pauses, a finger in the air. There’s a light flush coloring his cheek, making his freckles look brighter. Then Deans sighs.

“Okay… this is just for insurance, okay? It doesn’t mean I don’t want it but….I’m never gonna get to kiss you until this whole thing is over, you dig?”

It cut Castiel’s breath short, especially when Dean smiles all sunny again and winks at him. 

“Until we beat god, we stop Death with whatever she’s scheming… until you’re out of that deal… I’m not gonna kiss you.”

It’s unfair, because Dean looks so lively, color in his cheeks, flicker in his eyes like he knows something Castiel doesn’t and he holds on to it. His confidence is blinding, Castiel had never seen Dean so full of hope.

“Dean.”

“That’s what you get for sneaking behind me, _my idiot_ . Now come on. Let’s go chase that future. And then it’s E.T go home. I don’t want us going _Thelma and Louise_ riding in that sunset… I want us with an ‘ _E.T_ go home’ for you, Cas. Because after this ride, I’m taking you home.”

Castiel stands up to follow him, but then Dean is walking towards him, stops in his face, their face inches from each other, a kind comfortable space.

“No saying ' _I love you_ ', okay?”

“But I love you.”

Dean slams a palm on the angel’s mouth, hushing him while the hunter looks around them like he’s afraid someone’s listening. Castiel fought for control back but ultimately, it’s Dean

“You really got a death wish!?”

“Excuse me, Dean, but I don’t think that revelation has any significance to my deal. You and I both know that feeling and it hasn’t taken me away.”

“Agree…?” Dean whispers, hand sliding on the angel’s shoulder with eyes nervously staring at the walls. Castiel did not disappear under his clutch. Their eyes meet and it’s poignant.

“ _Fine_. But no kissing.” Yet here is Dean staring at his lips like it’s the only thing he can see. “That’s what you need to remember every time you get so happy. Don’t worry…I have… control.”

Dean just has to lick his own lips and the red and moisten is so captivating that Castiel scowls.

But he loves Dean even more.

“Great. Thanks for the hope.”

**Author's Note:**

> Gabby ;3
> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/spnsmile/blog/gabester-sketch


End file.
